Advance Review: Transformers

Bay's best film to date offers plenty of fun, but not much more than meets the eye.

Whether you love him or hate him -- and I'm somewhere in the middle -- Michael Bay was born to make movies like Transformers. There are parts of almost all his films that achieve near brilliance, and others that are rendered useless in their awkward failure. Spectacle, after all, is his specialty, not subtlety, so enjoying the sum of the parts sometimes requires dispassionate detachment or at least blind belief. But whether you think Bay makes the smartest dumb movies or the dumbest smart ones, Transformers is one of the most fun and engaging summer blockbusters in recent memory -- as long as you don't think about it too hard.

Shia Le Beouf (Disturbia) plays Sam "Spike" Witwicky, a gregarious if otherwise normal teenager with normal teenage goals: get good grades, get a car and hopefully get a hot girlfriend. When his dad Ron (Kevin Dunn) agrees to help him bankroll a ride, the pair head over to a used car lot to pick out a junker. Despite the oily salesmanship of Bobby Bolivia (Bernie Mac), who tries to push a yellow Volkswagen bug, Sam is immediately drawn to a beat-up Camaro and soon takes it home.

But the car seems to have a few goals of its own, first mysteriously "helping" Sam secure the attention of dream-girl Mikaela (Megan Fox), and then disappearing just as mysteriously into the night -- all without requiring Sam's hand behind the wheel (or any driver for that matter). Though the Camaro eventually returns of its own accord, Sam discovers its bizarre secret life -- namely, that it transforms into a giant robot -- and soon finds that this fledgling bond with his first automobile has much deeper implications. Specifically, his ancestor discovered a device of unimaginable power more than a hundred years ago, and two opposing groups of transforming extraterrestrial robots are desperate to find Sam in the hopes of recovering it.

For longtime Transformers fans, there are plenty of references to the original series, including an ensemble of favorite robots (Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream and Frenzy), audio cues from the cartoon (the clacking "transforming" sound) and the inspired casting of voice actor Peter Cullen as Prime. But many of the updates to the "Transformers universe," including the unnecessarily complicated way they look and change back and forth into vehicles, are clumsily executed, as if audiences really needed a logicial or technically accurate explanation for the robots. Thankfully, the state-of-the-art computer animation is completely convincing and fulfills the film's "scientific plausibility" quotient. Moreover, few if any prior films have as effectively integrated CGI and live-action characters as they do here.

That said, average viewers (much less critics) have to be smart enough to know a movie like this needs only to follow its own logic, not theirs. Transforming robots? Fine. Otherworldly, epic conflicts? No problem. But in a universe where cars change into gigantic robots (operative word: gigantic), shouldn't someone outside of the film's core cast see them? At least once? During one scene, Optimus and his crew hang out in Sam's backyard, while he looks inside for a sought-after tool needed by the Autobots. Even if his parents don't see them, don't the Witwickys have neighbors who might notice five anthropomorphic automobiles noisily rustling about in the next yard?

This seems to feed into the film's attempt to balance realism and irresistible, summer-movie absurdity: Bay has outdone himself choreographing major set pieces in between the human silliness, this time practically transcending conventional film language. According to the directing and editing of Transformers, for example, if you can get out of the same film frame as a pursuing Decepticon, you can get away from him, regardless of his robot sensors, his reach or the length of his stride. Interestingly, Bay seems almost completely disinterested in the robots themselves -- unless, of course, they can beat the living crap out of each other against the backdrop of a major American city (which, thankfully, happens often). Further, the connective tissue between a human escaping capture or even just moving from one location to another has apparently been deemed unnecessary, and is all but completely excised from the far-more-important action that Bay stages.

All this isn't to say that the film is wanting for energy or excitement. In fact, the first question I had as I emerged from the theater was not one of logic or believability, but just how in the hell Bay and company could possibly produce a sequel more epic in scale. Particularly in a time when even comedies somehow cost upwards of $200 million, it's amazing to see every cent of a movie's budget up on screen: freeways are demolished, buildings explode and entire cities are laid to waste in almost completely believable dimensions, save again for the lack of external awareness by the civilian (a.k.a. non-marquee) populace.

As Sam, Le Beouf continues to mature on screen and has one of the most natural presences of any young actor in Hollywood. Even in a film which he himself admits is more about extra-vehicular action than character development or emotion, he manages to leave a lasting impression. The remainder of the actors, meanwhile, seem to be on autopilot, save for John Turturro, who appears to be channeling Al Pacino in Heat, knowing the absurdly exaggerated pitch the film needs to succeed on its own ridiculous terms. The rest of the cast's contributions, meanwhile, are primarily physical (Fox's requisite "hot female," Jon Voight's credible provider of exposition, etc.), but seldom undermine the movie's goal of documenting "robots in disguise."

Ultimately, Transformers is Bay's show, and it's safe to say he makes the absolute most of a movie adaptation of a toy collection/classic cartoon series. Does it transcend the limitations of its under-inspired origins? No. But as the biggest non-sequel spectacle of the summer, few will be left wanting for more or different when they leave the theater. Because Transformers isn't just Bay's best movie ever, but one of the few instances where it's OK to enjoy something for being smart and dumb at the same time, mostly because it's undeniably also a whole lot of fun.